Al Qaeda, wary of being upstaged by even more ruthless Islamic State fighters, may try to show its relevance by carrying out attacks in Europe, the United States or Israel, the European Union’s counter-terrorism coordinator said on Wednesday.
With the world’s focus firmly on Islamic State’s advances in Syria and Iraq, the EU’s Gilles de Kerchove warned of the risk of competition between Islamic State and al Qaeda, which has renounced its offshoot as too brutal.
“It is possible that al Qaeda may want to mount attacks to show that the organization is still relevant, they are still in the game,” De Kerchove told a European Parliament committee.
He said some militants had moved from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Syria where they formed part of the Al Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group.
He added that it appeared they planned to recruit Europeans who had traveled to Syria to fight and persuade them to use their passports to return and mount attacks in Europe, Israel and the United States.
While Islamic States was the main target of a U.S.-led air assault in Syria this week, American officials said they also targeted the Khorasan Group, with the aim of disrupting a plot against U.S. or European targets that the Pentagon said was “nearing the execution phase”.
Extracted and modified from Yahoo News.
